The  MENDOCINO COUNTRY Independent
Updated 10/3/10


FERC CANCELS GREEN WAVE PERMIT

            The Green Wave Energy project off the Mendocino Coast is all but dead. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warned the company in June that the preliminary permit for that and a similar project off San Luis Obispo would be cancelled if it did not file notices of intent and preapplication documents within thirty days as required by regulations. Greenwave failed to do so but requested an extension of time after the deadline had expired.

            Such extensions were denied in late September. FERC said the company had failed to show good cause or extraordinary circumstances. Greenwave had 30 days from then to request a re-hearing. Failing that, FERC could open up the area to new applicants.

            In May, 2009,Last May, the agency issued a preliminary pilot project permit (P-13053) to Green Wave Energy Solutions of Southern California for up to 129 square miles of state waters of ocean out to three miles offshore between Albion south of Mendocino, and Point Cabrillo north..  
    A preliminary permit grants the applicant exclusive study rights to an area and also provides automatic preference for a license to actually produce power in the ocean. It lasts for 3 years and can be withdrawn if the applicant does not complete certain steps, including the above documents as well as a license application by 2012. Such licenses last for 50 years, and are renewable.
    strickland.jpgGreenwave is the creation of southern California land speculators and a libertarian state senator, Terry Strickland. They formed a partnership with Ocean Power Technologies, a wave buoy manufacturer based in New Jersey.
    While the OPT buoys depend on conventional mooring to the ocean floor and can be installed by conventional vessels, the size and numbers required means they would have to be manufactured on the west coast. Recently, PG@E canceled  a similar project off Fort Bragg due to the inadequacy of Fort Bragg harbor to accomodate industrial facilities necessary to maintain buoy arrays and collect any energy generated.
    The Green Wave project drew opposition from residents, environmentalists and fishing organizations concerned about its impact on the coast.


TONY STRICKLAND, an anti-tax conservative state senator was elected in 2008 on a sustainable energy platform. This year, he is the Republican candidate for controller, the chief financial officer of California in charge of $100 billion in investments and as well as warning when the state is running out of cash, and issuing or withholding payments to vendors.

The Suit:
   On January 15, 2009,  attorney Elizabeth Mitchell and Fishermen Interested in Safe Hydrokinetics (FISH) timely filed motions to intervene and comment in the application process for Green Wave's preliminary permit off the Mendocino Coast. The petitioners requested that the Commission stay or deny the preliminary permit until the agency develops a comprehensive plan for hydrokinetic energy off the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
     The city of Fort Bragg, County of Mendocino, the Ocean Protection Coalition, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen and the Recreational Fishing Alliance later joined the challenge.
   Nevertheless,  the Commission denied the petition and on May 1 issued the company its preliminary permit for three years, subject to terms and conditions. In response to the petitioners’ request, the permit order explained that the Commission does not perform a comprehensive analysis of project impacts during a permit application proceeding because that analysis takes place during the licensing process; when, and if, a project reaches that stage.
    On May 28, 2009, the petitioners filed a request for rehearing, repeating the argument they made in their comments on the permit order,  i.e., that the Commission must, before issuing a preliminary permit for Project No. 13053, develop a comprehensive plan for the waters off the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington and that its failure to do so violates section 10(a)(1) of the Federal Power Act as interpreted by court decisions.
     Petitioners explain that “comprehensive plan,” includes baseline environmental data, uniform study criteria and guidelines in preliminary permit articles, and require permittees to conduct studies to provide data by which cumulative impacts of proposed projects can be assessed.
    FERC denied rehearing on its issuance of the Greenwave permit on July 16 of last year, and plaintiffs filed a petition for review on September 11 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. FERC's cancelation of the permit likely postpones any appeals court hearing until it is known whether Greenwave will appeal.

optbuoy.jpgThe  Specs
 •  The preliminary pilot project would consist of up to 100  OPT hydrokinetic devices having a total installed capacity of 100 megawatts producing an estimated average annual generation of 250 gigawatt-hours per  year; a proposed 2- to 3-milelong, 36-kilovolt transmission line; and  appurtenant onshore facilities.
    • The project site begins a half mile offshore and extends to 2.6 miles from shore in water depths that range from 120 to 390 feet,.
    • The Ocean Power Technolgies PB40 prototype has an overall length of 48 feet (14.6 meters) and a float diameter of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters). When deployed, the PowerBuoy is approximately 14 feet (4.25 meters) above the water.
    • Buoys are spaced for maximum power generation.  30 acres of ocean surface are required to generate 10 megawatts. The arrays are scaleable up to 100+ MW, which would require 300 acres, or 1.25 square kilometers, about half a square mile.

Gold Rush for Ocean, but an Iffy Technology
    Spurred by hopes of stock runups amid "clean" technology buzz,  numerous speculative projects have been launched by both startups and major utilities and then suddenly abandoned.
    P.G.& E. recently dropped one of its two 40-megawatt wave-farm projects planned for the Northern California coast, according to documents filed with the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission.
    On June 9 of last year, Pacific Gas and Electric pulled the plug on a similar pilot project permit off Fort Bragg because the harbor their could not support the kind of shipyard sized facilities required to build and repair the Pelamis type buoys the company projected using.
    Despite the difficulties, P.G.& E. is pushing forward with a similar wave project in Humboldt county. The utility has cut that project’s size to 18 square miles from 136 square miles as it zeroes in on the most productive areas of the ocean. Jana Morris, a P.G.& E. spokeswoman, said that the utility expects to file a draft pilot license application for the project in the spring of 2010.
However, the National Marine Fisheries Service has identified a plethora of protected species that may be affected by the Humboldt project, ranging from endangered coho salmon to the northern elephant seal and the long-beaked common dolphin.
    In October of 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission denied a permit to allow PG&E to purchase power from a Finovera wave power farm after one of the company's buoys sank off Oregon.
FERC Powers and Process
   FERC is a stand alone agency whose five members are appointed by the president and report only to him. By law there can be no more than 3 from one political party. The commission regulates all dams in the country including the Potter Valley Project. During the Bush administration, they have unilaterally expanded their purview to ocean tides and waves.
    Their authority comes from the Federal Power Act.
    Ann F. Miles, the Federal Regulatory Agency’s director for hydropower licensing appeared in Fort Bragg in January of 2008.. She attended a city council meeting on Monday and at a packed public forum on Tuesday. At Tuesday’s meeting, Mendocino County fifth district supervisor stated the county had taken no position on the GreenWave application but had authorized county council to file for intervenor status on the permit. An intervenor may sue the agency upon rehearing after the granting of a license.
     A decades long veteran of the agency, Mills gravely outlined the vast powers of FERC to regulate electric projects on “navigable waters” in rivers and oceans including waters over state lands 3 miles offshore. Under the Federal Power Act of 1935. The authority extends from the generators in the water to onshore facilities to the connection with the grid.

Steps in the Process:
    Generally the steps in granting a development license are:
    1) Preliminary Permit maintains priority of applicant for 3 years; Conduct feasibility study and prefiling activities; no construction authorized. Includes public notice and request for comments during a 60 day period and a review of public and agency comments.
        Environmental studies could include ocean currents, bottom topography, wind, waves, water temperature, presumably conducted from boats and studies of existing data. Economic feasibility studies would include the relative cost of producing ocean wave electricity from other sources.
    The ocean survey vessel that struck and killed the Great Blue Whale last year was conducting ocean floor studies for this purpoose.
    The Preliminary Permit review covers the size of the claim and the details of the proposed technology. The applicant must complete a complex series of steps to comply with federal regulations including notice to diverse agencies and make periodic reports to FERC. Among the laws required to be satisfied are the ESA, MMPA, Fisheries Conservation Act, CZMA, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
    Finally, they must make a license application within one year of the preliminary permit decision. Failure to perform the steps can cause a cancellation of the permit.
    2)  License application begins another chain of reports and public comments and timelines for legal interventions. One of the steps is an EIS or EA. This process culminates in a license which authorizes construction and operation up to 50 years, renewable.
    2) a. Alternatively the applicant can go for a Pilot Project License which gives them an additional year to file an application. The pilot project must be small in area and capacity, be designed to generate only for 5 years, would agree to shut down if there is a problem, be removeable, and a bond would be posted to restore the site upon termination. In distinction t the Preliminary Permit, the public comment period for Pilot Project Licenses is only 3 days.